The present invention is generally directed to devices that may be attached to articles, such as merchandise, for deterring the theft of such articles, and is particularly directed to improvements in a theft-deterrent device of the type that contains a detrimental substance that damages a protected article attached to the device by releasing such substance when the device is tampered with during an unauthorized attempt to remove the device from the article.
Typically, the device includes means for attaching the device to the article, with the attaching means being embodied in two components that are adapted to be locked together on opposite sides of a portion of said article to prevent unauthorized removal of the device from the article. A typical attaching means includes a pin having a head embodied in one of the two components and means embodied in the other component for receiving the free end of the pin. The device is attached to the protected article by passing the free end of the pin through a portion of the article. At least one of the two components includes a fragile elongated vial that fractures when flexed longitudinally, with said vial containing the detrimental substance that would damage the article if the vial were to be fractured while the device was attached to the article.
Prior art devices of this nature are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,483,049 to Gustavsson et al., 4,670,950 to Wisecup et al. and 4,649,397 to Heaton et al. Typically, these devices are used to discourage the theft of such articles of merchandise as clothing, and the detrimental substance typically is an ink or dye or foul-smelling substance that permanently stains and or fouls the clothing so as to make the clothing unattractive and thereby generally unfit for wear.
In both the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,049 and the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,670,950, a detrimental substance is contained in two frangible vials that are respectively disposed in two opposing components that are secured together on opposite sides of a portion of the protected article when the device is locked to the article.
In the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,049, the vials fracture when severely contacted by a tool, such as a screw driver, that typically would be used in an attempt to pry apart the opposing components of the device so that the device could be removed from the protected article. The vials are so disposed in the device as to be readily contacted by a tool being used to pry apart the object and thereby fracture to release the detrimental substance onto an protected article locked to the device.
In the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,670,950, the frangible vials are longitudinally disposed in the two opposing elongated components so that when either component is flexed longitudinally during an attempt to pry the two components apart, the vial contained therein fractures to release the detrimental substance onto an protected article locked to the device.
In the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,397, two frangible vials are longitudinally disposed in one of two opposing elongated components so that when such component is flexed longitudinally during an attempt to pry the two components apart, the vials contained therein fracture to release the detrimental substance onto an protected article locked to the device. Such device further contains an electronic article surveillance tag of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,481,428 to Lincoln H. Charlot, Jr.
Another prior art detrimental-substance-containing theft-deterrent device having a vial that will fracture to release the detrimental substance whenever a forceful attempt is made to detach the theft-deterrent device from the article to be protected, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,075 to Dennis L. Hogan. In such device, an attachment-pin-containing component having openings in a surface through which the pin passes for engagement with the other component includes a plurality of fragile elongated detrimental-substance-containing vials that fracture when at least a predetermined pressure is applied thereto; and defines a head space for enabling limited axial movement of the pinhead, and guide channels containing balls between the pinhead and the vials. The guide channels are contoured for enabling the pinhead to force the balls to move and apply more than said predetermined pressure against the vial in response to the pinhead being moved in response to application to the two components of at least a predetermined threshold separation force that is nevertheless less than that required to overcome the retaining force between the pin and the clutch, to thereby fracture at least one of the vials to release the substance contained therein through the openings and onto the article attached to the device before the components are separated by prying or pulling the components apart.